To: K-list
Recieved: 2001/07/07 19:17
Subject: [K-list] Seizures of the Spiritual.
From: Christopher Wynter
On 2001/07/07 19:17, Christopher Wynter posted thus to the K-list:
Is it possible that the clear of voices of wisdom heard by the great
religious profits on lonely mountain tops were produced inside their
own heads?
Could the conversations that Jesus had with God have been caused by a
quietening of a frontal lobe in his brain?
Were Buddha's flashes of wisdom produced by something similar to an
epileptic seizure?
Once these were whispered theological matters. Now, they are fodder
for scientific research.
Do the people who believe in God have a different brain-wiring to
those who do not believe?
This tracing of the spiritual synapses has taken some odd turns.
One Canadian scientist is trying to develop a magnetised helmet that
emits electrical signals which he believes will inspire "spiritual
feelings". He is hoping to market the helmet to a previously
deprived secular market.
An American group of researchers has used special dyes to take
photographs of the brain action of Tibetan Buddhist monks and
Catholic nuns during deep meditation. They found that parts of their
brains were activated and other parts dampened during the experience.
According to the altered states theory, the part of the brain that
gives our clearly defined sense of self is repressed. Therefore,
meditation subjects experience a "fuzzy universal" feeling.
What the study indicated was that these deep states are not the
result of emotional fabrication, or what Freud would call "and
illusory infantile wish", but are associated with observable
neurological events.
Another research group claims that intense mystical religious
experiences are often similar to the experiences felt by those
undergoing epileptic seizures and during the taking of some drugs.
Yet another scientific group claims our genetic make-up is
responsible for everything from whether we like chocolate cake to
what religion we follow and whether we agree on the death penalty.
This neurotheology has run foul of some church leaders who claim that
it is just another attempt by science to destroy religion.
Others claim we have neurological responses to spirituality because
the supreme being caused it to be so.
The argument is never ending.
Andrew Newberg, an American professor of nuclear medicine, claims in
his book "Why God won't go away" that most of us are "hard wired" to
the believe in a supreme being because it makes us healthier.
Quoting several studies, he claims the religious have fewer strokes,
better psychological health and live longer than the population at
large.
"Unless our brains somehow alter, religion is going to be around for
a long, long time" he says. His research matches other findings that
meditation, prayer and other intense spiritual experiences are
generally accompanied by a quietening down of the parietal lobe in
the brain.
This allows information entering the brain to slow down, usually
causing the less precise definition of the boundaries of self and an
uplifting feeling the union with the universe.
This science-produces-God theory is not accepted by most people who
claim to have had the intense spiritual experiences.
Accepting spirituality was always about making creative choices
rather than a biological imperative caused by evolutionary fluke.
Albert Schweitzer described how he studied science in the quest of
knowledge of all things.He discovered "the knowledge of facts" was
not as valuable as the instinctive knowledge of mystical things.
Somewhere, within this matrix of Cause and Effect, lies the truth.
-- Christopher Wynter,
lifestreamsATnospambigpond.com
http://www.anunda.com
The material presented in this post is also archived for reference
on the open archive http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lifestreams
Paths info at http://www.geocities.com/piers_clement/Paths.html
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